Bernbach on Advertising X 20

1. "At the heart of an effective creative philosophy is the belief that nothing is so powerful as an insight into human nature, what compulsions drive a man, what instincts dominate his action, even though his language, even though his language so often camouflages what really motivates what really motivates him."

2. "If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic."

3. "Is creativity some obscure, esoteric art form? Not on your life. It's the most practical thing a business man can employ."

4. "The magic is in the product."

5. "It's not just what you say that stirs people. It's the way that you say it."

6. "You can everybody coming in on time everybody leaving on time, all work finished on the due date, and still have a lousy ad and fail."

7. "Properly practiced creativity can make one ad do the work of ten."

8. "It's that creative spark that I'm so jealous of for our agency and that I'm so desperately fearful of losing. I don't want academicians. I don't want scientist. I don't want people who do the right things. I want people who do inspiring things".

9. "I wouldn't hesitate for a second to choose the plain looking ad that is alive and vital and meaningful, over the ad that is beautiful but dumb."

10. "Our job is to sell our clients' merchandise...not ourselves. Our job is to kill the cleverness that makes us shine instead of the product. Our job is to simplify, to tear away the unrelated, to pluck out the weeds that are smothering the product message."

11. "A great ad campaign will make a bad product fail faster. It will get more people to know it's bad.

12. "Advertising doesn't create a product advantage. It can only convey it."

13. "Playing it safe can be the most dangerous thing in the world, because you're presenting people with an idea they've seen before, and you won't have impact."

14. "Properly practiced creativity MUST result in greater sales more economically achieved. Properly practiced creativity can lift your claims out of the swamp of sameness and make them accepted, believed, persuasive, urgent."

15. "There are few things more destructive than an unsound idea persuasively expressed."

16. "Word of mouth is the best medium of all."

17. "There is practically nothing that is not capable of boring us."

18. "The great mistakes are made when we feel we are beyond questioning."

19. "Knowledge is ultimately available to everyone. Only true intuition, jumping from knowledge to an idea, is yours and yours alone."

20. "An important idea not communicated persuasively is like having no idea at all."